Maya attacks Akhilesh for changing names of eight districts (Lead)

Lucknow, July 23 (IANS) The Samajwadi Party’s Uttar Pradesh government Monday changed the names of eight districts renamed by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a move that evoked strong protest from former chief minister Mayawati. She described it as an insult to Dalits and their sentiments.

Mayawati slammed the SP for “insulting the Dalit icons and leaders” by doing so and said that by this decision both Mulayam Singh Yadav and UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav earned a ‘black spot’ for themselves in history.

“It is indeed saddening that the state government has whimsically changed the names, riding roughshod over sentiments of millions of downtrodden Dalits by changing the names of these districts which were kept after these towering Dalit icons,” Mayawati said.

The SP-led state government should be prepared to bear the consequences of this hasty action, the BSP supremo said.

The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.